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Clip description
Mr Telford (Martin Vaughan) arrives at the stables with his son Cappy (Steven Bannister). Telford tells Tommy the strapper (Tom Burlinson) to take Phar Lap for his morning workout and work him hard. On the training track, other trainers joke about Phar Lap’s chances. Tommy tells his mate 'Cashy’ Martin (Richard Morgan) to try something different. Cashy is to ride ahead, while Tom holds Phar Lap back. The technique works: the big red horse likes to come from behind.
Curator’s notes
This is the film’s first full-scale romantic moment – the beginning of the horse’s rise to champion. It’s the first time we really get a close-up of him running and the shots are designed to capture all the power and beauty of the horse in full gallop: from the side, behind and in front. Bruce Rowland’s music adds the sort of lyrical theme that he contributed to The Man From Snowy River (1982), made a year earlier (with Burlinson on horseback for the first time). Much of the film is about the uglier side of horseracing but these scenes are about the 'sport of kings’ – a noble undertaking in which man and beast are one, allegedly.
The reference to lightning is because that is what the name means. 'Farlap’ is a Thai-Zhuang word for lightning, suggested to Telford by a young Chinese-Australian medical student. Telford changed the spelling and made it two words to achieve seven letters – the same number as several Melbourne Cup winners.
